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olivereliott · 5 years

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Custom Bikes Of The Week: 19 January, 2020

A box fresh turbocharged Kawasaki Mystery Ship, a slinky Yamaha Virago cafe racer from Spain, a Henderson Model G converted into a vintage board track racer, and a Honda Dominator with a Dakar rally vibe.

Yamaha Virago by VooDoo Garage The Yamaha Virago was one of the surprise custom hits of the last decade. It seems like an unlikely candidate for a cafe racer build, yet time and time again builders manage to whip it into shape.

The thing is, a lot of Virago cafe racers follow the same formula; often including a classic Benelli fuel tank and a waspish tail. This XV1100 from VooDoo Garage in Spain bucks that trend, and it’s all the better for it.

In an inspired move, VooDoo installed the boxy fuel tank from a Laverda 1000J. But the biggest challenge here was massaging the Virago’s cruiser stance into something more palatable. It now features a custom subframe, new YSS shocks, Suzuki GSX-R forks and 18” Excel rims.

There’s a custom top yoke with an integrated Motogadget dash, clip-ons, new switches and an LED light. Every detail is top-shelf, from the two-finish seat to the neat Yamaha logo cut into the custom license plate bracket. The exhaust system is also unlike anything we’ve seen on a custom Virago; twin pie-cut headers running into two SC Project mufflers. [More]

1980 Kawasaki 750cc Mystery Ship The Bonham Las Vegas auction (which kicks off this week) has several rare machines in the catalog, including an Ex-Bud Ekins 1938 Triumph 5T Speed Twin, vintage Brough Superior and Vincent project bikes, and this Craig Vetter-designed Kawasaki.

Craig Vetter was the man behind the legendary Windjammer fairing, and later the designer of the Triumph X-75 Hurricane and the Mystery Ship. The bike was based on a Kawasaki KZ1000, but it underwent extensive changes. Each KZ that was converted into a Mystery Ship underwent frame and geometry mods and suspension upgrades.

Then it got wrapped in a two-piece body kit, designed to be supremely aerodynamic. Only 10 Mystery Ships were built, and the one you see here was built with the top spec available—so it’s turbo-charged too.

To add to its rarity, only two Mystery Ships were ever built to that spec. And this one only shows two miles on the odo. [More]

1917 Henderson Board Tracker The Mystery Ship isn’t the only rare machine up for auction at Bonhams. Our friends over at Silodrome have a nose for sniffing out unusual metal and this time, they’ve stumbled upon something truly special: a 1917-model Henderson Model G, converted in recent years into a vintage board track racer.

The Henderson Motorcycle Co. was the first American marque to produce four-cylinder motorcycles, long before they were commonplace. The Model G was a big deal back then, with a three-speed box, wet sump lubrication and a dry clutch. The thing is, Henderson never really competed in board track racing—taking part in endurance-style events instead.

This Model G was actually rebuilt as a board track racer in recent years. It had ended up at the Wheels Through Time museum, sans its gear box, which had been cut off and used in an airplane. The motor was gifted to Paul Ousey by the museum, who decided to build this.

A new, period-correct frame was designed and built. It features a hard tail, a springer front end, a sprung saddle and low bars. The gear box is a three-speed Triumph unit, and the only sneaky modern part is a Brembo rear brake. (And it has lights now.)

It runs, too. Once it was complete, it was raced at the Sons of Speed vintage board track event. It’s about to go on auction in Las Vegas by Bonhams, where it’s expected to fetch more or less the price of an Arch KRGT-1. Tempted? [More]

Honda Dominator by Mauro Gessi Ricky Brabec has just won the motorcycle class of the Dakar rally. That makes him the first American to take gold in the iconic event—but his win is significant for another reason. Ricky races for Honda, and so he’s just broken an 18-year Dakar winning streak by KTM.

To celebrate, here’s a look at a Honda scrambler with a big hit of classic Dakar styling. It’s a single-cylinder 650 cc Honda Dominator, reimagined with retro looks and modern upgrades.

Most custom Dominators shy away from their classic dirt bike roots and end up as street trackers, but this one leans into its heritage. The bodywork is from a sister bike—the Honda XL 600 LM. But the forks, swing arm and rear shock are off the same Honda that Ricky’s Dakar-winning bike is based on: the CRF 450.

For the paint job, Mauro called up Oberdan Bezzi to whip up a few options. He settled on this classic Africa Twin-inspired livery, complete with ‘Paris Dakar’ logos in the same style as the Africa Twin’s original logotype. It’s the perfect finish for this retro desert racer. [Gessimotociclette Facebook | Images by Stefano Romagnoli]

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somar78 · 5 years

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A Craig Vetter Kawasaki Mystery Ship – A Rare Turbocharged ’80s Icon

The Craig Vetter Kawasaki Mystery Ship was a special version of the Kawasaki KZ1000 that had been significantly rebuilt by Craig Vetter and his team using experience from both their popular Windjammer fairings, and their championship win in the 1978 AMA Superbike Series with Reggie Pridmore riding a KZ1000 and performance tuning done by Pierre des Roches.

Meet Craig Vetter

Craig Vetter was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall Of Fame in 1999, he’s probably best described as a polymath thanks to his successes in a wide variety of fields. He was a motorcycle racer himself and he founded the Vetter Corporation which became the largest motorcycle fairing company in the world in the 1970s. Vetter’s work inspired many motorcycle manufacturers who began to offer fairings on their own models from the late 1970s onwards.

Vetter would later assemble the above mentioned 1978 AMA Superbike Series winning team, which gave him the idea of creating the Kawasaki Mystery Ship. A serious hang gliding accident took him out of the limelight for a few years but on his return he founded the Vetter Fuel Economy Challenge…. Oh and he also designed a number of motorcycles including my personal favourite, the 1973 Triumph X-75 Hurricane.

Just 10 examples of the Kawasaki Mystery Ship were ever built, the company had planned to make 200 but the hang gliding accident occurred early on in the production cycle and resulted in it being shut down.

The Mystery Ship was offered with an MSRP of $9,995 USD, approximately 3x the price of the stock Kawasaki KZ1000. For this extra money you got a modified and strengthened frame, rearset footpegs and a gear change linkage system, the steering headstock was changed to 26°, the rear suspension mounting was modified and Mulholland Force 1 rear shock absorbers were fitted, and a magnesium box section swing arm replaced the stock unit.

MYSTERY SHIP TUNING OPTIONS

When ordering your new Mystery Ship you could choose from five performance options:

Stage 1: 101 hp – 1105cc – 10,000 rpm.

Stage 2: 108 hp – 10,500 rpm – ported and polished head.

Stage 3: 116 hp – Same as Stage 2 but with larger valves.

Stage 4: Full Superbike Specification (details and pricing offered to customers on request).

Turbo: A turbocharged engine was developed by Russ Collins of R.C. Engineering, offering a 40% boost in power.

Just two examples of the turbocharged version of the Mystery Ship were ever built, one now lives in a museum and the one you’re looking at here is the other. Due to the rarity of the Mystery Ship as well as its AMA Superbike Series heritage they’re now highly sought after by collectors and typically only seen in museums, though they do occasionally come up for sale.

The red Mystery Ship you see here is probably the most collectible example in private hands today, it’s one of just two turbocharged examples, it’s also rolling on spun aluminum wheels, and it has just 2 miles on the odometer from new. It will now need a thorough re-commissioning before any riding is attempted, though it’s likely that the new owner will want to preserve it as is and add it to a collection.

If you’d like to read more about this bike or register to bid on it you can click here to visit the listing on Bonhams, it’s due to cross the auction block on the 23rd of January, and it has a price estimate of between $25,000 and $35,000 USD. Not a bad figure for an unusual piece of motorcycling history.

Images courtesy of Bonhams

The post A Craig Vetter Kawasaki Mystery Ship – A Rare Turbocharged ’80s Icon appeared first on Silodrome.

source https://silodrome.com/craig-vetter-kawasaki-mystery-ship/

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